How to choose a manufacturing ERP.

The short answer

Before you look at software

• Write down your flow. List every stage from material inward to dispatch, who does it, and which documents are created.
• List your pain points. Stock mismatches, job work tracking, late dispatch, slow reports—rank them.
• Count users by role. Stores, production, quality, dispatch, sales, accounts and management.
• Decide the first phase. Which modules must go live first, and which can follow.

The 12-point checklist

1. Process fit. Can the ERP follow your actual flow—inward, production, quality, dispatch—without workarounds?
2. BOM and production. Can you define BOMs, plan against orders, record consumption, output and scrap by batch?
3. Job work. Does it track material sent to each job worker, pending quantities and receipts, with challans?
4. Inventory accuracy. Is stock updated as material moves, by item, batch and store?
5. Quality. Can inspections at inward, in-process and final stages hold or release stock?
6. Local compliance. In India: GST invoices, e-invoicing where it applies, and e-way bills from the same records—not re-typed elsewhere.
7. Usability. Can a stores or dispatch clerk learn their screens quickly? Is there mobile access and barcode or QR scanning for the floor?
8. Cloud and access. Is it cloud-hosted, with role-based access, backups and no servers for you to run?
9. Connected records. Do workers’ attendance and wages, job-work costs and accounting share the same data, or do they need separate tools?
10. Reporting. Can management see output, stock, pending orders, delays and costs without building reports by hand?
11. Transparent pricing. Is the per-user price, setup cost and renewal clear before you sign?
12. Implementation and support. Who configures it, loads your data, trains your teams, and answers after go-live?

Questions to ask in every demo

• “Show me one of our products going from purchase order to dispatch, using our own BOM.”
• “Show me how much material is with each job worker right now.”
• “Create an invoice and e-way bill from this dispatch.”
• “What does a stores user see on their phone?”
• “What will we pay in year one, and in year three, for 20 users?”
• “What happens to our data if we leave?”

Red flags

• The demo only shows dashboards, never the day-to-day entry screens your staff will use.
• Job work or GST needs a “customisation” or a separate add-on.
• Pricing depends on a long discovery phase before any number is shared.
• Every change to a form or report needs a paid developer.

A simple scorecard

Score each option from 1 to 5 on the twelve points, weight the ones that match your top pain points, and compare totals. Keep notes from the demo questions—they reveal more than feature lists.

If no ready-made option scores well on process fit, read Custom ERP vs ready-made ERP. To see how Kriyex ERP scores on your list, open the demo (opens in a new tab) with your own products in mind.